Chapter 908: The Great Mountain

Wang Qingzhao nodded. "I have it on my phone."

Zhao Yiwan: "Count me in."

Wang Qingzhao's phone did have quite a few of those popular games, but she rarely ever touched them, just left them sitting on her device.

As for Zhao Yiwan, since Zhang Xue had recently gotten hooked on Game for Peace, she'd been playing along with Zhang Xue. After all, Zhang Xue was technically her boss, and even if she weren't, they were still friends. Playing together was pretty fun.

Zhang Xue: "Game for Peace supports 4-player squads. We need one more. Jiang Ran, what about you?"

Jiang Ran: "Uh... I don't have it on my phone, but you three can start a match first. I'll join once I finish downloading."

Zhang Xue: "Okay."

And so, the three women started a match, while Jiang Ran opened the app store and downloaded Game for Peace.

Jiang Ran wasn't exactly strapped for data, so he used his own mobile data to download it.

Soon enough, he finished downloading the app, then went through another eight or nine gigabytes of resources before he could finally play.

"Man, games from way back were all about keeping the file size small, but they were still fun and had plenty of content."

"Nowadays mobile games are each more ridiculous than the last. You get into the game and still have to download this massive amount of resources, and on top of that... it lags..."

While he was grumbling, Zhang Xue and the others had already finished their first match.

Wang Qingzhao and Zhao Yiwan had been eliminated in the final circle.

It was all thanks to Zhang Xue carrying the team to a chicken dinner.

Wang Qingzhao was genuinely amazed by Zhang Xue's skill.

"Wow, your aim is incredible!"

Zhang Xue humbly waved her hand. "Actually, it's not my aim that's incredible. It's that I bought hacks."

Wang Qingzhao: "Hacks?"

Zhang Xue nodded. "Without buying hacks, this game is unplayable!"

"Lower-tier lobbies are fine, but in slightly higher-tier lobbies, basically everyone is running wallhacks and aimbot."

Jiang Ran heard this and grumbled, "Damn... that's totally unfair for green players like us playing with our bare hands!"

Zhang Xue nodded. "Nothing we can do about it. That's just how this game's trend is going. Look at those streamers, who among them doesn't use hacks?"

Jiang Ran: "I've seen videos like that. Streamers live-streaming, wiping out entire squads solo. Sound-whoring their way through, landing shots like gods."

"But then one time, it seemed like a streamer was playing against a pro team and couldn't use hacks."

"The two of them were running circles inside a building, just couldn't find each other."

"Then the streamer's fans said the streamers were just too nervous. Unlike those pro teams who play professionally, so the streamers couldn't perform at their usual level."

Zhang Xue let out a snort of laughter. "These fans, they're something else."

The second match started, and Jiang Ran was invited to the squad.

Once he joined, he saw Zhang Xue's character.

The outfit she was wearing was absolutely gorgeous.

It looked expensive as hell.

Then he looked at himself, Wang Qingzhao, and Zhao Yiwan.

Three country bumpkins.

The second match ended pretty quickly.

The group had run into a chaotic brawl between two full squads.

It was hack versus hack.

On their side, Zhang Xue, the one with hacks, was the first to get taken out by an enemy hacker.

Then the three rookies got wiped one after another in a 1v3.

When it was Jiang Ran's turn, because he nearly killed the guy, he ended up getting finished off with melee punches.

"Stupid dog, without hacks you're nothing. I really want to crawl through the internet cable and beat the crap out of that guy."

Clearly, Jiang Ran who'd been punched to death was pissed, blood pressure through the roof, burning with rage.

Of course, those words fell on deaf ears as far as the others were concerned.

After all, everyone gets angry when they lose at a game. It was just venting.

But if those words had come from one of the alternate personalities inside Jiang Ran's inner landscape world, then it would definitely be real.

Because back in his Earth days.

It was the same game. One of Jiang Ran's alternate personalities got melee'd to death and was furious.

So he directly hacked the guy's account, tracked him down across provinces, and found him.

He took that twenty-something-year-old guy and tormented him for days on end, torturing him to death.

So when Jiang Ran had released 62 alternate personalities, it was like releasing 62 demons.

These demons would wreak havoc all across the world.

Victim after victim, family after broken family.

It was even worse than when Jiang Ran had been alone on Earth back then.

Because at that time, there was no System, and there was only one body.

The group played two more rounds, then called it quits. They put down their phones and started chatting.

The topics of conversation were all over the place.

Eventually, the car suddenly came to a stop.

It turned out that Gao Yang and Qin Chuan were switching seats. Qin Chuan was taking over the driving.

It seemed this trip was going to be much farther than their last trip to rent a fishpond.

"Where exactly are we going this time? What are you guys filming a video about?"

Jiang Ran asked Zhang Xue curiously.

Zhang Xue gave a faint smile. "You'll find out when we get there."

The car drove on and on.

They drove until past 8 PM.

They still hadn't reached their destination.

At a hotel in an unfamiliar city, the group settled in for the night.

This time staying at the hotel was completely different from the last time they'd stayed at one for the fishpond trip.

Last time, Jiang Ran and Wang Qingzhao each had their own room, while the two couples each shared one.

But this time, all four of them each had their own room too.

Jiang Ran could sense there might be something fishy going on, but since he had at least a little emotional intelligence, he didn't dare ask.

The night passed by quickly.

The next morning after breakfast, the car continued on its way.

Except this time, the further they drove, the more remote it got. The surrounding scenery and buildings transitioned from bustling city to small-town vibes.

If he weren't with Wang Qingzhao, Jiang Ran would've thought Zhang Xue and the others were human traffickers.

They drove until noon, when the car arrived at the foot of a mountain.

At this point, they were just about at their destination.

Looking at the map on his phone, it showed.

They were long gone from Jiangnan Province, and were now in a province that was two provinces away from Jiangnan Province.

This province wasn't as developed as Jiangnan Province.

The economy was much worse.

And, where they currently were happened to be one of those impoverished areas of the province.

"Damn, don't tell me they came here to film a poverty-alleviation video?"

Jiang Ran guessed in his head.

A gentleman is judged by his deeds, not his heart. If Zhang Xue and the others were really filming poverty-alleviation content, then regardless of their motives, they were still helping people.

The car didn't stop at the foot of the mountain. Instead, it followed a road leading up the mountain.

This mountain road wasn't easy to drive on, all dirt and gravel.

The only saving grace was that the road was still fairly wide.

But the people inside the car still couldn't escape the bumpy ride.

"This is brutal! Coming to a place like this to shoot video. Zhang Xue, you really go all out!"

"Honestly, with your looks, you could film just about anything and still gain followers. Why come to a place like this?!"

Inside the car, Jiang Ran was being jostled around so much he was about to throw up. It was disgusting.

Zhang Xue was also being shaken up uncomfortably, and she said, "No can do. I mean, I'm decently good-looking, sure, but put me online among a sea of pretty girls, and I'm just average. If I only filmed those kinds of videos, the competition would be way too fierce."

Flowers need green leaves to set them off.

A fairly attractive person placed among a crowd of attractive people naturally wouldn't stand out.

But placed among a crowd of ordinary-looking people, one glance and it's like, wow! She's gorgeous!